WATERTOWN -- Owen McGowan played in the Connecticut Junior golf championship for the first time Monday, and the Woodbury 15-year-old will not likely forget it.

McGowan survived an 11-man playoff and was the last player into the match-play field at the 71st Junior at Watertown Golf Club.

McGowan, a Taft sophomore and a Watertown member, shot a 79 during qualifying, and after hanging around the clubhouse for four hours, found himself one of 13 players in a playoff for the last five spots in the 32-man match-play field.

Before the playoff began, two golfers were missing, so 11 players tromped to the first tee.

Two other locals were in that playoff group. One, Alex Taylor, who, like McGowan, plays out of the host club, got through on the second playoff hole when his par score moved him on.

The other, Derek Bizier of Crestbrook Park, was in it alongside McGowan for the duration of the playoff.

And it was a marathon. It took five holes and two hours to spit out the last five players.

Bizier had two birdie putts that would have gotten him in, the killer miss being on No. 3, when his 15-foot try burned the edge of the cup. Bizier was eliminated when he made bogey on that fifth playoff hole.

McGowan survived when he played the five extra holes in 1-over. He missed a five-foot birdie putt to get in on No. 1, flew the green on No. 2, made bogey, but so did everyone else, and clinched his spot with par on the par-3 14th.

With players scrambling around the green, McGowan calmly made his two-putt par from 20 feet.

"It was a good experience," McGowan said. "I had a pressure putt on one that I missed, went over the green on two, but when I got to that last hole I hit a good iron shot, and had a good two putt. It was nerve-wracking, but a good experience."

Here's another good experience for him: He plays the medalist today in the first round.

John VanDerLaan shot an even-par round of 71 Monday to earn the No. 1 seed, and he hooks up with McGowan to start match-play at 7:30 a.m. VanDerLaan is actually co-medalst with Eric Austin of Lyman Orchards who also shot a 71.

"I played well on the front nine," said VanDerLaan, a Pomperaug High junior who plays out of Heritage Village, "no mistakes, two birdies, and went out in two under. I had a couple of erratic shots on the back coming in."

What's wonderful about the Junior this year is that the other VanDerLaan, younger brother Mike, now a sophomore at Pomperaug, also advanced to match play with a 5-over 76.

"We get along," John said, somewhat convincingly. "We have matches all the time, so it would be cool if we played here. It makes us both better because we want to beat each other."

Or as Mike noted, "You always want your brother to play his best and do well, but at the same time you want to beat him."

We can only hope.

Along with the VanDerLaans, and Taylor — that's three Pomperaug High golfers — and McGowan, three other local lads moved on to match play.

From Crestbrook, Eddie Hill followed up his championship play at last week's PGA Junior, also at Watertown, to shoot a 4-over 75 and grab the No. 8 seed in match play.

The other two qualifiers are from Watertown Golf Club.

Jay Hogan, who will be a senior at Holy Cross in the fall, got through with a 5-over 76 to get the 12 seed, and 14-year-old Tom Labbe, who will attend The Gunnery this fall, came in at 7-over 78 to avoid the playoff and earn the No. 26 seed.

The tournament is now all match play all the time, through to the championship final, with two rounds today, quarters and semis Wednesday, and an 18-hole match-play final Thursday.

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